France has committed to 20 more Dassault Rafale fighters, 12 for the air force and eight for the navy. The defence ministry has now ordered 61 Rafales, 36 for the air force and the rest for the navy. Dassault delivered 10 by the end of 2001 and is due to deliver another 13 this year. Raytheon Systems is to remanufacture up to 434 Tomahawk cruise missiles to Block IIIC configuration under a $320 million US Navy contract. Sister company Raytheon Aircraft is to supply a further 40 T-6A Texan turboprop trainers, plus four simulators, under a $193 million US Air Force contract. Russian arms export agency Rosoboronexport has sealed a $400 million contract with China for "several batteries" of Almaz S-300PMU-2(SA-10C/D Grumble) surface-to-air missile systems. This boosted Rosoboronexport sales volume for 2001 up to $4.4 billion. Lockheed Martin will provide updates for MLU F-16s operated by Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway under a $117 million contract. The M3 operation flight program update will allow use of the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), Link 16 datalink and precision weapons. The company will also supply 51 modular mission computer and common colour multifunction display retrofit kits, 91 air-to-air interrogator kits and 16 JHMCS and Link 16 kits to upgrade US Air Force F-16s under a $85 million contract. Additionally, Lockheed Martin has received a $134 million contract to build two KC-130J tankers for the US Marine Corps. Israel's Tadiran Spectralink has received a $7.5 million US Navy contract for 3,662 personal locator beacon/voice transceivers and 400 emergency locator transmitters. General Dynamics has received a $9.6 million USN contract to upgrade 1,422 PRC-112B1 survival radios. Sikorsky has produced one further UH-60L for Thailand under a $6.9 million contract. Turkey has selected the Israel Military Industries Airmor self-protection system for its helicopters. The $105 million contract will be signed soon.
Source: Flight International
